Justice In Action

It's easy to find Caroline Dunlap and the Harm Reduction team at JRI's Program RISE. They're the ones wearing backpacks while meeting people in downtown Framingham, dispensing care and concern, along with vital supplies, to the region's active drug users.

"We are trying to fill in the gap" for services to people who are part of a "stigmatized population" who inject, smoke or snort opioids or other drugs and run the risk of dying from drug overdose, becoming homeless, or contracting HIV or Hepatitis C or infection from sharing used needles, Dunlap says.

The team's services range from giving out socks and winter clothing, teaching drug users how to use Narcan, also known as naloxone, to reverse the effects of an overdose, helping people sign up for the SNAP program (Food Stamps) or deciding to enter a detox or treatment program.

"Our main goal is to provide compassionate care" — without pressure — to people who often live on the margins because they use drugs, Dunlap says.

Harm reduction originated in the 1980s in response to the AIDS epidemic. Many of AIDS' early victims lived on the streets, injected drugs, were gay or transgender or were sex workers largely ignored or even scorned by others. Because government offices and policy usually did not provide for their needs (needle exchange programs were illegal) people found ways to care for one another.

"We are all that we have and it's up to us to protect each other," she says.

Needle exchange programs have sharply reduced the number of new AIDS cases: between 2000 and 2014, HIV infection rates fell 91 percent among Massachusetts intravenous drug users, Dunlap says.

Dunlap went to college to study environmental science in order to become a park ranger, but she moved from Massachusetts to the San Francisco Bay Area and was drawn to harm reduction work, in part because of her own struggles with depression.

Dunlap's team of three or four meet 15 to 30 clients a week at their offices, but they also walk around downtown Framingham with backpacks and wearing shirts and jackets that read "Harm Reduction Staff" with the program's phone numbers and talking to people on the street. They give out essentials to help the people they meet: hygiene supplies, kits for safer drug use, wound care kits.

Program RISE is also introducing a mobile van that will allow drug users to exchange syringes, get Narcan training or get tested for HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

"Harm reduction is more than just needles," Dunlap says.

The trauma associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, related unemployment and family strains are a factor in the rising overdose rates, she believes. Yet people have a hard time talking about it.

"Drugs provide an out for people in traumatic circumstance,' Dunlap says. "There's so much stigma around drugs that people often are hesitant to ask for help…Anyone can suffer from addiction" but often people don't recognize the cost of habitual drug use until it affects a child, husband, coworker, parent or friend.

"It's hard to be empathetic until it's your kid (but) you never know who around you is in trouble," she says. "We are here to look out for each other. I'm definitely alive because someone looked out for me."

You can find Program RISE on Instagram at metrowest_harmreduction, on Facebook at Program RISE or on the website at www.jri.org/rise.

Justice Resource Institute (JRI) has teamed up with William James College, New England’s largest school of psychology, to create an innovative degree completion program for JRI staff.

Marc Abelard, director of the Behavioral Health Service Corps, director of the Bachelor in Psychology & Human Services Completion Program and co-director of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative at William James; Ed Powell, JRI vice president of community engagement and executive director at STRIVE Boston, and Tonya Morris, a survivor mentor and training specialist with JRI’s  My Life My Choice and a recent graduate of William James College, talk about the program and the unusual level of support it provides for students.

Morris, who works with young victims of abuse, sex trafficking and other traumas, was one of four JRI employees to earn a bachelor’s degree in May as part of the program’s first graduating class. A single mother who works full time, Morris said she was thrilled at the opportunity to complete her education, but uneasy about entering the classroom again after decades away. Support from JRI and William James College was key to achieving her goal and becoming effective in working with her clients.

“If I didn’t get what I got from William James College I would have not been able to handle the cases I’m handling now,” she said. She plans to tackle her master’s degree next.

Money and time are the main barriers for many when returning to school. Abelard says the program addresses both. Generous reimbursements from JRI and William James scholarships mean JRI employees can earn a degree at no cost to them. In addition, JRI provides employees the flexibility they need to fit classes and studying into lives filled with work and family obligations, while William James College offers the hands-on academic support to ensure they succeed.

Powell said the program encourages entry level staff members to see their work at JRI as a career, not just a job. Because entry level workers are often people of color, the program also helps address issues of racial equity and structural racism, while ensuring that the JRI staff reflect the diversity of the clients they serve.

Training this workforce has become more critical as baby boomers retire and leave Massachusetts with a severe shortage of social service professionals. The William James College program enables JRI to train and retain employees of the future.  In fact, through the Boston STRIVE program that Powell directs, someone without a high school degree could earn a GED, get hired by JRI, use a tuition reimbursement program to earn an associate’s degree at a community college and then go onto William James for a bachelor’s and master’s.

“By giving folks the education they need, it gives us a chance to elevate people who otherwise might not have had this opportunity,” he said.

For a child who has suffered long-term trauma from abuse or neglect, the world doesn't feel like a safe place. And children who suffer from such complex trauma often face challenges when it comes to forming relationships with others, acting out with anger or suffering silently from depression.

Enter Meredith Norton, a licensed social worker in Massachusetts, an equine-assisted therapist and riding instructor and lifelong horse lover. She is the director of JRI's Trot On, an equine-assisted therapy program at Furnace Brook Farm in Marshfield, MA. Trot On matches young clients suffering from complex trauma with well-trained, tranquil horses to form relationships that teach those clients emotional regulation and self-control, empathy and communication skills.

"The human/animal bond is so important because it naturally supports (emotional) regulation and naturally supports helping calm stress levels," Norton says. "Animals naturally reduce (people's) stress hormones when they are interacting with humans.

Children suffering from complex trauma sometimes benefit from non-traditional forms of therapy — like equine-assisted therapy.

"Horses are living biofeedback machines," Norton says. "If you're calm and relaxed, your horse is going to reflect that in their energy….Horses are herd animals seeking that connection" with people.

Trot On is not only about riding. Clients learn to care for their horses, communicate with them verbally and non-verbally, and learn to read their horse's cues and respond appropriately. Those skills can help heal a wounded child.

"Think of a young child learning development tasks — learning to walk, learning to read, learning to feed themselves — and all of the brain's energy is going into forming those developmental skills," Norton says. "But if they're impacted by chronic stress, the brain is going to focus on safety responses, so the brain is going to develop differently in response to all that."

Trauma can affect a child's ability to form and maintain relationships, succeed in school, manage her emotional state and behavior toward others. Treating that trauma is essential to healing that child.

Riding is about movement and synchronization between horse and rider. That movement can help a child better understand the cues from her own body and her horse.

"Horses are living biofeedback machines," Norton says. "If you're calm and relaxed, your horse is going to reflect that in their energy….Being able to form a relationship with a horse who is non-judgmental, as all animals are, can be a lovely precursor to (forming) human relationships," Norton says.

Learn about Trot On, JRI's equine-assisted therapy program, by visiting them at https://jri.org /trot-on

The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests sweeping across the United States have especially affected black and Hispanic populations, adding emotional trauma to individuals and families.

Dr. Kerry-Ann Williams, a psychiatrist who is the medical director for the children’s residential programs operated by Justice Resource Institute (JRI), was interviewed on “Justice In Action,” a podcast series by JRI. She often works with children who have been traumatized by physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

She says that clients of color can be resistant to help because they are mistrustful of medical professionals due to a long history of unequal treatment. Black Americans in the last century sometimes were the victims of medical experiments and denied treatment for illness as part of medical studies.

Williams also hosts a Sunday morning radio show, “Black Mental Health Matter,” on 98.1, The Urban Heat, in Boston. She takes calls and interviews experts to provide information and counsel for people needing help. Topics include depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder and other issues of special significance to black people and people of color.

Williams, who was born in Jamaica and moved to Texas as a college freshman at Baylor University, discusses systemic racism, cultural literacy and making the medical profession more responsive to the needs of people of color.

To learn more about JRI, one of New England’s largest social service agencies serving children and their families in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, visit them at JRI.org

Most would agree that we live in a sex-saturated culture. So why do we find it so hard to talk about sex?

Deborah Jackson, Clinical Training and Developmental Specialist for JRI, trains clinicians and staff to handle sexualized behavior that young clients are exhibiting (or thinking about exhibiting).

"We come with our own personal beliefs. We come with our own morals. We come with our own personal histories," she says.

Jackson was a featured guest on Justice in Action, a podcast series hosted by JRI, (Justice Resource Institute) the leading social service agency in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

She says that how effective clinicians or staff are often depends on their own attitudes about sex and about "sexualized behaviors that are normative for every stage of development."

For example, 4-year-olds who feel overwhelmed or overtired sometimes will stroke their genitals to calm themselves.

"For a little kid it doesn't feel any different than stroking their arm or their hair (or carrying around) a blanket or teddy bear," she says. "(But) we don't want them doing it in the mall when they're tired and mommy's made them shop too much."

For older children in their early to mid-teens, sending nude or partially nude photos is normative behavior — that is, something that a "great number of people are doing."

Jackson recommends that adults try not to overreact to such behavior, but seek to make it comfortable for children to talk about, if only to listen and then remind them, "These are not our values. There are some safety risks" that come from sending out nude photos that could end up on the internet or in the hands of adults looking to exploit children for sex.

"The conversation needs to be more than 'Just stop it,'" she says. Adults' discomfort means most children never get to have "frank, honest conversations with their parents about sex."

And sex education in most public schools is inadequate, Jackson says, noting that only 24 states require that the schools teach even the basics.

So for many children, what they learn about sex comes from their friends — or the internet. The average age of a child's first exposure to explicit online photos or videos is 11, Jackson says.

Jackson will conduct training about handling sexualized behavior on April 10, and we invite you to visit the JRI website at www.jri.org/events to learn more.

At least one in five teen-agers will get a sexually explicit photo this year — most of those images sent to them via texts, emails and smart phone applications. Many of those images will come from people they know, but some will be from people they meet online through social networking applications that make it easy for users to share photos and videos.

And while that sexualized content might be normal behavior among teens curious about their emerging sexuality, increasing numbers of social media applications and online gaming features can expose children to sexual predators who used the internet to identify potential victims, form online relationships within them and sometimes extort sexual favors from them.

That was the message from JRI professionals who work with children who have been victims of online sexual exploitation or who are at risk of becoming victims. Meredith Rapoza, Division Director of Permanency and Latency Services at JRI; Katryn Haley-Little, Clinical Director at My Life My Choice, a program of JRI helping children who have been exploited or who are deemed to be at risk; and Michelle Loranger, Executive Director of the Children's Advocacy Center of Bristol County, were guests on JRI's weekly podcast series, "Justice in Action: Making a Difference as Leaders in Social Justice."

And while the victims of sexual exploitation are "disproportionately female…(the problem) crosses all genders and identities," says Loranger.

The explosion of online applications make it imperative that parents and legal guardians monitor their children's use of the internet, engage them in honest discussions about both the positive impact of the internet and social media that allow people to find information almost immediately and connect with others online and the potential harm that affects thousands of children and teens each year.

More than half of U.S. children own a smart phone by age 11, and about 84 percent of teens own one. That gives them access to a world of useful information. It also gives them access to sites that can pose danger.

"More than half of those (children) exploited sexually met their assailant online," says Haley-Little.

That means parents must stay alert and model appropriate use of online tools and games.

"If you're going to allow your child to have access to some kind of electronic device, you've got to start thinking about 'Is this device safe,'" says Rapoza.

Advice to parents and guardians?

Keep the communications line open, look for changes in children's behavior and encourage children to speak up if they are asked to share contact information, photographs or videos with strangers.

Justice Resource Institute President and CEO Andy Pond discusses his organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the nation as part of JRI’s podcast series “Justice In Action.”

The novel coronavirus outbreak and the nationwide protests over the killing of black Americans by police are part of the “same frame” — that is, problems related to systemic racism that leaves people of color more likely to get sick and to die from the COVID-19 epidemic that has already killed more than 117,000 Americans as of this writing, and more likely to be victims of police brutality.

“I have an obligation to talk about it and it’s an opportunity to show what side we’re on,” says Pond. People of color are three times more likely to die from COVID-19, he says, and it’s not because they are biologically more vulnerable.

“It’s a difference in history and the systematic inequities that exist in our health care system,” along with other cultural and economic factors, Pond says.

“While we have done, I think, a lot, we have not done enough,” he says. “The answer can never be we’ve done enough.”

Throughout the course of the COVID-19 outbreak, JRI staff have gone above and beyond for their clients, many of whom have suffered trauma and need the help and support of JRI’s more than 120 programs serving children and families in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“They’re here because they care about the kids and adults they are working with,” Pond says. “There is a lesson in persistence and perseverance in the face of adversity.”

Even though the challenges are enormous, Pond is hopeful about the future and about the lasting effects of the pandemic and the broadly based protests sweeping the country to demand an end to systemic racism.

“Real change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen,” he says.

JRI is one of the largest social justice/human services agencies in New England, serving between 20,000 and 25,000 people each year in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Nearly 70 percent of those served by JRI (Justice Resource Institute) are children and families in need of shelter, full-time residential services, mental health care, help for HIV/AIDS, support for transgendered youth, and a myriad of other challenges.

Here is some of what JRI's chief executive officer, Andy Pond, and chief operating officer, Mia DeMarco, said about trying to make a difference in the lives of some of our most vulnerable and traumatized citizens. You can listen to the entire podcast here.

The beginning

The Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965 encouraged states to begin

"deinstitutionalizing" mentally ill and developmentally delayed citizens from big state hospitals where tens of thousands of patients were kept locked away and, in many cases, neglected and mistreated.

"'Warehouse' would be a kind word [for the conditions inside those state hospitals]. Treatment wasn't part of the process," said Pond.

Enter JRI and many other non-profit agencies to pick up the slack. They ensured that there were treatment options for people being released to receive care in less restrictive, community-based settings.

The mission

CEO Pond describes the expanding JRI mission as attempting to reduce the "quotient of human misery….everyone has a right to the pursuit of happiness."

That means helping foster families care for traumatized children who have often known abuse and neglect, moms and kids who have been forced from their homes, youths referred by the juvenile justice system and many others.

"If you can think of a social issue or need, we probably provide a service for that family or individual," says DeMarco.

She was drawn to the field when she was assaulted by a teen-aged girl while working as a direct care counselor when she was in nursing school.

"I realized the pain so many people carry around that we just can't see," she said.

Pond added, "The history and mission have pretty much stayed the same since the beginning. What's expanded is the scope….We don't have a good elevator pitch because you can't stay on an elevator that long."

"Incredibly caring and compassionate"

People who work for human service agencies like JRI are people who care about others and about making a difference in the lives of their neighbors.

DeMarco said, "People who do this work are just incredibly caring and compassionate."

For the past decade, JRI has been named one of the best employers in Massachusetts (and recently in Connecticut) because of the financial support it provides for employees' education and opportunities for professional advancement. But it's more than just financial support and a career boost. It is the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of other people, the chance for personal growth alongside others who share a passion for the JRI mission.

JRI invites people interested in exploring a career in social justice to visit the JRI website, https://jri.org.